Unfortunately still not sure what this hedge is. During the year it has not produced any fruit and if my memory serves my right has not produced any in previous years. Other trees in the area have produced abundance this year. A bit of additional information the leaves measure 6cm x 2.5/2.8 cm with a short petiole 0.8cm and have toothed edges. The hedge has purple shoots.

The purpleness of the shoots could be misleading. It may lean us towards P. cerasifera var. nigra, but the degree of purple/green can be influenced by factors such as light level (eg. due to shading) and cultivar.

This spring there was a mass of flowers on the hedge which were prior to hawthorns in the area flowering but this hedge still does not have any berrys or fruits. Could it be possible that it is blackthorn that is not going to come into fruit.

You don't mention if the bloosom preceded the leaves. that would be a good pointer towards blackthorn as you know.

'Flowering before the hawthorn' is of mixed use, since there are two common species of hawthorn, flowering at slightly different times covering April-to-June. (Blackthorn woukd normally be in flower March-April, myrobalan plum Feb-April, damson in April.)

I'm not sure why it might not be fruiting, as these species have hermaphrodite floiwers (it is not that there are male and female plants, relying on proximity in order to acheive fruit 'set'.)

Well that points to blackthorn, though we've noted the leaves on your plant seem a bit large, and the leaves are also not quite right in terms of toothing and overall shape.

One might be tempted to consider myrobalan plum (larger leaves but flowering only just before/with the leaves), but that is usually spineless, whereas yours has spines You are sure yours has spines? (It can be easy to mis-associate a branch from a neighbouring bush.)

It is a shame we don't have the fruit to taste.

So it is still unclear; but it is probably still somewhere in that spectrum I menioned before.

You mention (Nov 28, 2013 9:46) other trees in the area have fruited. Have you identified those, and are they the same in terms of foliage, etc.?